Novak Djokovic officially became the highest prize money earner in the history of men’s tennis when he beat Kei Nishikori to win the Miami Open title for a sixth time.
Djokovic’s winner’s check, worth US$1,028,300, meant that his career prize haul rose to US$98,159,548 and after Roger Federer was forced to withdraw from his proposed comeback at the tournament, that total was sufficient to overtake Federer’s prize fund by US$343,627.
This year alone Djokovic’s four titles (Doha, the Australian Open, Indian Wells and now Miami) have earned him US$4,649,495 and with the Masters 1000 clay court treble of Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome coming up, he certainly looks poised to become the first male to crack the $100 million barrier.
“I’m very grateful and proud of all the achievements, and the fact that I put myself in a position to make records and to have my name in the history books is a great incentive,” said Djokovic who has overtaken Federer in the prize money stakes after giving the Swiss a six years start.
“It’s quite amazing. I’m very thrilled about it. Hopefully I can make many more records. But I didn’t think about it too much. It didn’t impose any pressure, or I didn’t want to have it as a distraction; rather as a motivation.”
In addition, Djokovic begins his 193rd week on top of the ATP World Tour rankings, further ahead of the second ranked player than he has ever been with 16,450 points. To put that in perspective, it is more than 1,000 points ahead of the combined total of his two nearest challengers, Andy Murray and Federer.
And there were many more notable numbers to come out of the title win that tied Andre Agassi’s best ever haul from Key Biscayne. Djokovic overtook Rafael Nadal as the all time top collector of ATP Masters 1000 titles with 28 to his credit. Plus the 714th win over his ATP World Tour career also betters the record of his absent coach Boris Becker.
Before heading back to his tax-free haven home in Monte Carlo, Djokovic talked about winning a Masters title without having either of his coaches, Becker and Marian Vajda present.
“You have to do your work, go out on the court and play to win and try to win by yourself,” he said. Your team is there obviously to contribute to your game as much as they can and to mentally prepare you for what’s expected of you out there.
“But at the end of the day, it’s the amount of work and time and energy that you put into yourself. I rely highly on my beliefs and my strengths and all the work that I put on and off the court.
“So I do feel satisfaction knowing that even without my two main coaches present here that I’m being able to win the tournament and not drop a set. It gives me a great deal of independence and a confidence boost, as well. But I’m still looking forward to have one of them with me in the future events.”
Content via bob Larson tennis news. Copyright.
Topics: Atp World Tour, Indian Wells, Miami Open, Novak Djokovic, Tennis News
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